I Hope You Dance

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I have to admit that this weekend was kinda rough for me.  I’m not sure how it started, but I began to feel down and discouraged about my blog and how it is progressing.  For the most part, I am truly content with having this blog as a creative outlet for myself – a place where I can share my thoughts on life, songs that inspire me and eventually some of my own songs.  But, for some reason, I started to get the feeling that my blog would never be successful, which to me means having a lot of people following my blog and even making some money from blogging.  I realize it’s silly for me to think like this, especially since I just started my blog a mere four months ago, but the feelings of discouragement still felt very real. 

To keep myself from drowning in negative thoughts, I tried to think of a song that would encourage me to stay positive and keep pressing forward, or something that would lift my spirits enough to help me smile, but I couldn’t think of anything.  It wasn’t until I was driving in my car on Sunday evening that I heard the words I had been searching for. 

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance 

These words are from the song I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack.  Tears welled up in my eyes when I heard this song; it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.  My favorite line of the song is, “Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance.” Faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)  There are many times when I’m completely confident in the dreams that God has placed in my heart; sometimes I can even see myself fulfilling every single one of my dreams.  Then, there are other times, like this weekend, when I start to question whether my dreams will ever become a reality.  It’s in these moments of doubt where I have to fight for faith and fight for the confidence and assuredness that I have in God that He will fulfill every dream that He has put in my heart.   

My second favorite line of the song is, of course, “When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”  The words are so simple yet so powerful.  I hope that I choose to dance in my life, and I hope that I dance because I love to dance and not because I am looking for anyone's applause or approval.  That’s what I want in regards to blogging.  I want to continue blogging not just for the numbers or the money, but simply because it’s something that I love to do.      

So, here I am...blogging just because I love to blog, and I pray that it will always be that way.